Tax payers in the city had a tough time on Thursday as they queued up at various offices to file income tax returns on the last day. Besides technical glitches and humid conditions, they had to face an indifferent staff.

Many tax payers who visited the income tax office on Ashok Marg complained of problems in the departmental servers and unsupportive staff. Two senior officials of Unicef, who had come to file tax returns, rued: "We kept running from pillar to post to get the right person to fix our problems, but the staff of this department turned a deaf ear to our grievances." But I-T staff said the problem arose because the duo had wrongly mentioned the assessment year as 2015-16 instead of 2014-15.While tax payers struggled to file returns, a senior official in a lighter vein said such situation occurs when a person goes to a bank with a job meant for a post office. He, however, criticised the apathy meted out to the bonafide tax payers in the income tax office.

Speaking to TOI, RP Tiwari, a chartered accountant, said, "Almost every year, there are technical snags in the servers at I-T department, due to which tax payers face problems in filing income tax returns. When the department knows this has become an annual problem why it fails to take corrective steps."

An I-T official, however, said tax payers should avoid last minute rush as it puts lot of burden on the servers. To expedite tax gathering, an extra counter was opened in each of six regional offices of income tax in Lucknow, said department PRO Prajesh Srivastava.In the financial year 2013-14, total income tax collected in UP East circle was Rs 7,400 crore. "In the current financial year, the target tax collection is Rs 9,566 crore, of which Rs 1,833 crore (19.16%) had been collected till Wednesday (July 30)," said a senior I-T official.